A Reflection on the Place of Natural Rights in Motahhari’s Intellectual System

Mortaza Motahhari is a philosopher who had tendencies towards naturalism in the philosophy of law. According to naturalism, as a theory with many advocates throughout the history, nature and existential realities of the human being are considered as criteria for inference of legal rulings and laws in the society. Motahhari believed in a series of natural and innate characteristics in the reality of human existence, which served as foundations for justification of basic human rights in the society as well as legal differences between men and women in their family life. Motahhari’s naturalism is also obviously teleological in character. This is what demarcates his view from other versions of naturalism, such as Hobbes’s. In Motahhari’s intellectual system, freedom has a special place. He believes in a combination of positive and negative freedom. In his view, if such a notion of freedom is realized in human life, true individual and social perfection will be obtained.